Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
I love Election Day! That I was off from work today made it just that more festive. I voted alone around 10:00 a.m. Gert went in with the children later in the evening.
Watching the returns this evening has been interesting. It sure looks as though Chris Christie is going to pull out the upset here in Blue Jersey: a Republican winning a statewide campaign.
The ballot question to borrow $400 million to fund park cleanups, football fields, and other pet projects is going to squeak through.
It looks like 1st district voters are happy to send two men who have done little for them back to the Assembly. One thinks so little of his record he talks about his son who died four years prior to his running for office. The other parks in handicapped spaces, calls it a BS ticket, and then squanders local tax dollars by going to court rather than just paying the fee.
Even worse, Cumberland County voters are more than happy to send Lou Magazzu back to the freeholder board. It looks as though Tom Shepard will join him, so the 7-0 board will now be 6-1. Nelson Thompson looks to be in as the third freeholder.
Gloria Noto has enough of a lead to hold off Van Embden.
It’s been a mixed evening. I did not subscribe that New Jersey’s gubernatorial election was a referendum on President Obama’s presidency . . . until President Obama said it was. Since he battled so hard for a man who has been disastrous for the Garden State, he can take the loss on his record. So, Obama looks to be the big loser tonight. Well, so was Corzine. Not only did he lose his job, he spent millions to do so.
I am not certain we are poised for a conservative revolution. The GOP is still a mess. Christie did well in a time when things were as stacked against Democrats as they have ever been in this state. Now it is time for him to govern. Governor-elect Christie, you have a massive budget hole for next year’s budget. How are you going to close that? You’re now on the clock.
Posted in New Jersey, Politics | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Just took a look at the Groundspeak fora. It’s good that consistency prevails. The cesspool discussion area thrives. A namecalling thread egged on by Mr. O’Connell makes elementary school look mature in comparison . . . It seems that despite property taxes rising more than 9% in Chicago this year, the Obama’s house will only see a rise of 1% in property taxes . . . The nearest unfound shutterspot to me is 177km. After this week, I hope the nearest one will be 322km . . . the latest New Jersey gubernatorial poll has Christie up 47-41 over Corzine. While that is good, I hope that does not provide comfort for those who want to vote their conscience for Daggett at the expense of Christie. I am not a diehard Christie fan, but it is important to remove Corzine from office . . . Alas, it does not look good for my Phillies. The bats have been too quiet. I’ll give the Yankees credit for that. Our pitching has not been spectacular either, but the bats are the main concern . . . FWIW, my children put such a smile on my face! I love you two . . .
Posted in Baseball, Family, GPS Games, Geocaching, Politics, Sports | No Comments »
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
A few weeks from now New Jerseyans will vote for its governor. New Jersey and Virginia are the only states that are electing governors this year. Many point that this is the first chance voters have on voting on President Obama’s progress. This is a litmus test. It may be, but New Jersey has so many issues, this election is key without considering national consequences.
The Garden State is entrenched as a Democratic stranglehold. We elect few Republicans to anything. The number of registered Democrats far outstrips Republicans. To be fair, there are more independents than either party, but it’s also fair to say most independents lean left.
The last Republican governor in our state was Christie Whitman. Whitman was very moderate. Her governing was nothing one could claim as conservative. Many would claim the only reason she won is that Governor Florio was just so bad anyone else would have won.
This year is similar, in some ways that the election in 1993 was. Governor Corzine is looking to be re-elected. He is not a popular governor. He has raised taxes. Until this week, he had trailed this entire race. Much like every professional basketball game, this race has tightened late.
Corzine’s main opponent is Chris Christie. Christie is a former US Attorney who had a perfect conviction record of prosecuting corrupt New Jersey politicians. True, that is kind of like shooting frogs in a barrel here.
Until the summer, the main criticism of Christie is that he prosecuted far more Democrats than Republicans. Democrats have controlled government here, so that really was a no-brainer. But Christie has effectively been damaged by pointing out some shadiness. He loaned a subordinate $46,000, but failed to file the correct paperwork. This is the same problem folks have with Governor Corzine and his payouts to Carla Katz. Christie seems to have used his position to get out of some traffic tickets too. That doesn’t surprise me and doesn’t bother me that much, but it has closed the polls.
Enter independent Chris Daggett. Daggett appears to be the perfect candidate for me. He’s a Republican who is fed up with how government is run here. He has some good ideas. He’s should be my Newt Gingrich in this gubernatorial race. There are two problems with voting for Daggett, however. One is that Dagget’s support comes at the expense of Christie. The reality is that Daggett will not win. I have no argument voting for the best person for the job, but this year it may be more important to vote out Corzine, even if I do not have faith that Christie will cut state government in the manner I desire. It would be a tough choice going this route.
For me, however, Daggett fails as an independent candidate. His proposal to reduce property taxes is to end rebates. I favor that. He speaks intelligently about slippage. The problem is that to reduce property taxes further, Daggett wants to expand the sales tax to cover more items and services. With an increase in sales tax “revenue”, he can return money to taxpayers. Think about that. Daggett would increase taxes to return taxes. This is exactly what is wrong with the property tax rebates he wants to get rid of. This is just a miserable idea that I cannot support him.
That leaves Corzine or Christie.
Governor Corzine has been a failure on virtually every front. The sales tax was increased to 7%. The promise was that half of the increase would be used for property tax relief, but as soon as things got tight, that went away. Corzine raided the hotel tax for the general fund, thus depleting a targeted tax for the arts. If targeted taxes can be raided like that, then they should not exist. The very first thing Corzine did as governor was to indebt New Jerseyans for 30 years to fill potholes in 2006. Those potholes have been filled, but we will continue to pay the debt on that money long after Corzine retires to some exotic island. Corzine oversaw a corrupt Schools Construction Corporation. He did a little dance and renamed the failed organization that blew through $8.6 billion of commandeered tax dollars and then appropriated more tax dollars to fund it. Corzine disregarded voters and began funding stem cell research after we said “No” resoundingly. And then there is the entangled financial relationships Corzine finds himself in. Being as rich as he is, he spreads his money around. Corzine is the #1 contributor to county Democratic organizations in 20 of our state’s 21 counties. He has invested in Carl Icahn, a former casino operator in the state and a man who wishes to own another. His former girlfriend Carla Katz and her family keep receiving money from the governor. Until recently she was the head of the largest union of state workers. It is all very troubling. Finally, Corzine was able to get a law passed that makes it illegal for municipalities to reduce their school taxes. That’s correct; municipalities are locked in to the rates they currently have, unless they desire to increase them.
The only semi-success I can point to for the governor is that he broke, for now, the stranglehold (a great Nugent song, although he didn’t sing it, from long ago) the Supreme Court has had over education. A new funding formula was developed that will have public money follow students, not districts. I think this funding plan is bad, but it has gotten rid of the Abbott districts, which was not working.
For these reasons, Governor Corzine is unacceptable to me.
Chris Christie is purposely vague. He talks a good game, but has offered virtually no details as to how he plans to cut spending, taxes, and government’s size. It’s a political game that he has taken against an unpopular governor. With the recession likely to continue, it’s quite likely that New Jersey’s problems will worsen next year. Should Christie win, he may not want to deal with the trouble ahead of him.
This is a race, however, that it is important to change directions. There is no reason to believe Governor Corzine will do anything positive for the state. Electing Christie will at least shake things up.
The GOP in this state is horrendous. They have misstepped numerous times during Corzine’s tenure. That it has a candidate in the lead, no matter how small it may be, is a surprise. If it does not win this election, one wonders just what hope the party has in this state. This is the year to oust a Democrat. If it fails, New Jersey will solidify its place as the most liberal state in the union.
Because of all this, I will pull the lever (heck, we push buttons now) for Chris Christie and hope for the best.
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Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Governor Corzine has proposed a budget that is smaller by about $4 million than last year’s budget. While that sounds wonderful, the reality is that one-year gimmicks, which Corzine promised not to use, and deferring pension payments are how this budget was decreased. Spending was not decreased at all, it just wasn’t increased much.
Last week Corzine finalized a deal with one of the state worker unions. He heralded it as a cost savings deal. It is no such thing. The workers agreed to 10 furlough days instead of 12. But they get bankable vacation days in return. They’ll cash those out at retirement at a higher rate than what they lose next year.
Corzine has been a disaster as a financial caretaker of our money. So you would think that I would applaud Nelson “Little Buddy” Albano’s comments yesterday that he, Jeff “I Sponsor Every Bill” Van Drew and Ass. Milam will vote against the Corzine budget. I don’t. Did you catch the reasoning?
Assemblyman Nelson Albano spoke to Coastal Broadcasting and reiterated that State Senator Jeff Van Drew, his colleague in the Assembly, Matt Milam, and he would not be voting for the budget because of the significant cuts it would bring to the 1st District.
That’s right, these three “leaders” want more money spent in the budget. These are the guys who led us while Corzine ensured that not one penny of the $891 million of federal transportation stimulus money was spent in Cumberland County. Not one penny! Now they are outraged so will vote against the budget.
Could this have anything to do with Albano and Milam’s re-election campaign this year? It’s not exactly as though they can ride the coattails of the governor since he is even more unpopular than former Governor Florio. So these two do-nothings are trying to distance themselves from the sinking governor.
P.S. Have you heard anything about Ass. Milam’s leadership in ensuring that handicap parking spaces are properly marked? Neither have I. I suspect the Ass. wants that issue forgotten so he can be re-elected. Can you come up with one thing Ass. has done for his constituents instead of to? I’m drawing a blank too.
Posted in New Jersey, Politics | 3 Comments »
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
While I am not a fan of sports betting, the fact of the matter is it goes on. There is no reason, therefore, New jersey should not get a slice of the pie. With Delaware’s recent adoption, it is an attack on NJ’s gambling interests. I support Corzine and Van Drew in suing to overturn the regulation that prevents The Garden State from running a sports book . . . It is good to see a business investing in Camden. The little bit of tax dollars that will accompany this appear to be a good expenditure. That is a pleasant change from the money pit Camden usually is . . $981 million of the stimulus package will be spent on keeping New Jersey teachers employed. How do you feel about that? . . . Gov. Corzine pissed off concert-goers the other evening. He had coerced campaign donations for the promise of a Bon Jovi concert. That concert was three songs. The crowd was not happy . . . After this year, I am onboard with this article about teacher burnout . . . In addition to the massive debt Gov. Corzine has created for us, did you know the public colleges and universities of our state have added beaucoup debt to our taxload? . . . Remember the outcry state workers had because they were no longer able to take Black Friday off? Well, no longer. Gov. Corzine caved and gave Black Friday off. All that was gotten in return was Corzine saved face in front of VP Biden . . .
Posted in Concerts, Education, Entertainment, New Jersey, Politics, Sports | No Comments »
